Megiddo's strategic location at the northern end of the defile of the Wadi Ara, which acts as a pass through the Carmel Ridge, and its position overlooking the rich Jezreel Valley from the west gave it much of its importance.

It guarded the western branch of a narrow pass on the most important trade route of the ancient Fertile Crescent, linking Egypt with Mesopotamia and Anatolia and known today as Via Maris.

[7] The Chalcolithic period came next, with significant content around 4500–3500 BCE, as part of the Wadi Rabah culture, at the following base level of Tel Megiddo, as other large tell sites in the region, was located near a spring.

3000 BCE) and described by its excavators, Adams, Finkelstein, and Ussishkin,[10] as "the most monumental single edifice so far uncovered" in the early Bronze Age Levant and among the largest structures of its time in the Near East.

[11] Samples, obtained by Israel Finkelstein's Megiddo Expedition, at the temple-hall in the year 2000, provided calibrated dates from the 31st and 30th century BCE.

Archaeologists' view is that "taking into account the manpower and administrative work required for its construction, it provides the best manifestation for the first wave of urban life and, probably, city-state formation in the Levant".

[16] Magnetometer research, before the 2006 excavations, found that the entire Tel Megiddo settlement covered an area of ca.

[13] In 2014, Pierre de Miroschedji stated that Tel Megiddo had around 25 hectares in the Early Bronze IA and IB periods, when most settlements in the region only covered a maximum area of 5 hectares, but that excavations suggest large sites like Tel Megiddo were "sparsely built, with dwellings disorderly distributed and separated by open spaces.

"[17] Tel Megiddo was still among the large fortified sites, between 5 and 12 hectares, during the Early Bronze II-III period, when its palace testifies that it was a real city-state "characterized by a strong social hierarchy, a hereditary centralized power, and the functioning of a palatial economy.

By the later Middle Bronze Age, the inland valleys were dominated by regional centers such as Megiddo, which reached a size of more than 20 hectares, including the upper and lower cities.

[21] In mortuary contexts, in a dental calculus of individual MGD018 (c. 1630–1550 BCE), at Tel Megiddo, turmeric and soybean proteins were found, which are South Asian products, suggesting he may have been a merchant or trader who "consumed foods seasoned with turmeric or prepared with soy oil in the Levant, in South Asia, or elsewhere," indicating the possible existence of an Indo-Mediterranean trade.

[25] Thutmose III's campaign is attested in Stratum IX at Tel Megiddo, a well fortified site in Late Bronze Age I.

[28] Egypt's control of this Canaanite region ended around 1130 BCE,[29] as Stratum VIIA was destroyed around this date or shortly thereafter,[30] attested in the palace and adjacent Level H-11 building.

[39] This destruction was "caused by the growing proto-Israelite power in the central hill country, out of which [emerged] the Northern Kingdom of Israel [that] should be dated to the first half of the 10th century BCE," related to "the biblical narrative of the war led by Deborah and Barak in Judges 4–5.

"[40] Ben-Dor Evian and Finkelstein (2023), based on an updated Bayesian model and recent radiocarbon datings, proposed that Stratum VIA ended sometime between 999 and 974 BCE,[41] not due to the conquest of Shoshenq I but by "the expansion of the highlanders into the valley, a development that soon brought about the emergence of the Israelite Northern Kingdom.

"[42] Applying Bayesian model inference (OxCal v.4.4 software), archaeologist Enrique Gil Orduña (2024) considers this destruction took place sometime around 986 to 983 BCE.

[44] The destruction of Stratum V was attributed, by Yadin and Mazar, to Shoshenq I, the first pharaoh of the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt, who would have taken Megiddo sometime around 926 BCE,[45] which is attested in a cartouche on a stele fragment, found in a spoil heap of the Shumacher excavation by the Oriental Institute team, and in a partial and damaged list of toponyms at the Temple of Karnak.

The palaces, water systems and fortifications of the site at this period were among the most elaborate Iron Age constructions found in the Levant.

Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria conquered Megiddo in 732 BCE, turning it to the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire's province of Magiddu.

Today, Megiddo Junction is on the main road connecting the center of Israel with lower Galilee and the north.

It lies at the northern entrance to Wadi Ara, an important mountain pass connecting the Jezreel Valley within Israel's coastal plain.

[54] In 1964, during Pope Paul VI's visit to the Holy Land, Megiddo was the site where he met with Israeli dignitaries, including President Zalman Shazar and the Prime Minister Levi Eshkol.

[55] Famous battles include: A path leads up through a six-chambered gate, considered by some archaeologists to have been built by Solomon,[56][57] but which Israel Finkelstein dates to the Omrides, found in Stratum VA-IVB, late Iron IIA period.

3000 BC), has been described by its excavators as "the most monumental single edifice so far uncovered in the EB I Levant and ranks among the largest structures of its time in the Near East.

Since then, his conclusions have been challenged by James B. Pritchard, Dr Adrian Curtis of Manchester University Ze'ev Herzog, and Yohanan Aharoni, who suggest they were storehouses, marketplaces or barracks.

[66] In February 2023, the remains of two elite brothers buried with Cypriot pottery, food and other valuable possessions were found in a Bronze Age tomb.

Bioarchaeologists identified the early evidence of a Bronze Age cranial surgery called trepanation in one of the brothers.

The study published in PLOS One, reports that the younger brother died in his teens or early 20s, most likely from an infectious illness like leprosy or tuberculosis.

A 30-millimetre (1.2-inch) square-shaped hole was created on the frontal bone of the skull after his scalp was cut with a sharp instrument with a bevelled edge.

[71] In 1925, digging was resumed by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, financed by John D. Rockefeller Jr., continuing until the outbreak of the Second World War.